The £325m maintenance and response contract for motorways and major A roads in Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire and South Lancashire will run for up to 15 years.

From April 2019, Amey will start carrying out routine maintenance, repairing defects, responding to emergency incidents and providing severe weather services on 420km of motorway and 80km of major A road.

Further Asset Delivery contracts will be awarded for design services and the construction works framework across the region.

Amey already maintains Area 7, consisting of 787km of roads in the East Midlands, and also is responsible for designing maintenance and improvement schemes for nearly 658km of strategic road network in Areas 13 and 14.

Under the new contract there will be a greater focus on bringing services in-house, including winter maintenance. To deliver the service, Amey will be recruiting 45 new employees from the North West to join the present team across a variety of roles.

Andy Milner, Chief Executive of Amey, said: “Working together, listening and learning from our clients and customers, we have reshaped our Highways business to put collaboration and service delivery at the heart of our approach.

“This approach is the basis of developing the Area 10 collaborative model with Highways England and the supply chain to deliver services for the communities of the North West.”